


Episode One: Cake Week

by Mtorolite



Category: great british bake off, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-10
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-13 23:41:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28661898
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mtorolite/pseuds/Mtorolite
Summary: Bakugou's been waiting to get into the tent for years and show the world how good his bakes are. Kirishima works on the camera crew in the tent.Bakugou figures the cameraman with the shark teeth and the red hair is okay.Kirishima thinks the angry baker is pretty manly.Written as a birthday present for lore_shark!
Relationships: Bakugou Katsuki/Kirishima Eijirou, Pre-Relationship - Relationship
Comments: 20
Kudos: 79





	Episode One: Cake Week

**Author's Note:**

  * For [lore_shark](https://archiveofourown.org/users/lore_shark/gifts).



> A quick little fic based on Bakugou being a contestent in the GBBO and Kirishima being crew, in celebration of Lore's birthday! Happy birthday, Lore, and I hope you enjoyed!

Officially, Kirishima was camera crew. Unofficially, everyone pitched in wherever they were needed in prepro. Setting up the tent, putting in the counters, making sure each bench had the same equipment. Mel and Sue and Mary and Paul would arrive tomorrow for opening shots.

This year’s bakers would arrive the day after. In the meantime, ovens had to be tested, scenery made to look artfully/artlessly homey, aprons and gingham and tea towels washed.

Kirishima loved his job. It was fun and it was nice to be a part of something that so many people enjoyed. All the cake tasting every weekend was nice, too. Cake week started in two days and Kirishima could not wait

Mel and Sue are always fun to have on set. They read through the briefs on the bakers, with photographs to help them memorize their names, and they greet the veteran and the newbie crew alike. They make the biggest fuss over test chef Aizawa's nephew, Shinsou.

Aizawa is responsible for testing the technical challenge every week, as well as making a few dozen Victoria sponges a day to check the ovens. Years of complaining have finally given him his nephew as an assistant.

There are other people crowding in and around the tent; Hizashi and his assistant, Jirou, are checking and rechecking mics and equipment; Kaminari has sheafs of paper on different clipboards running down lists of ingredients and equipment, and Mina is prepping makeup kits.

She complains the most about Paul's, insisting it would be cheaper to just dip him in bronze and half done with, but she immediately melts for Mary Berry who just wants some powder and some glitter around the eyes.

There are six people on cameras specifically, Kirishima, Tetsutetsu, Sero, Tsu, Inasa, and Awase. The director, Yagi, goes over the rules with them again and again before the bakers arrive on set. Don't get comfy with the bakers. Keep moving - don't focus on one.

And the cardinal rule - NOTHING goes in the oven or out of the oven without it being filmed. NOTHING. Yagi is very strict about this.

And finally it was time for the baker's dozen to enter the tent, and the crew to fade into the background.

🍰

SIGNATURE CHALLENGE: CHOCOLATE CAKE

Eight pages of written application, one fucking ridiculously long phone call, two bakes, three rounds of interviews, a technical in front of people, and one train south to Berkshire, and Bakugou Katsuki was ready to start baking. 

Before the baking started, they needed shots of him and the other twelve bakers walking down the path from the house to the tent, half a dozen cameraman buzzing around, squatting by the stairs with the potted plant, or controlling a drone camera to get them from above, before they lined up, two rows of soldiers, before the tent, so Mel and Sue could welcome them all in for the cameras.

The head of the crew - or one of them - was giving them a few last minute repeated instructions. He tuned out, he knew the drill. He didn’t talk quietly enough for people to need him to repeat himself, and if he needed a camera when his bake was ready to go in, he’d fucking go grab a cameraman himself before he let his schedule go off. 

He was very exacting in his recipes, and he wouldn’t let anything go wrong because some shitty cameraman wasn’t fast enough on his feet. 

It was Cake Week, and Katsuki Bakugou was going home with the title of Star Baker. His chili-chocolate cake was going to blow Paul Hollywood’s fat head clean off his shoulders.

Mel and Sue were telling everyone they had two and a half hours to make their perfect signature chocolate cake to present to Paul and Mary, and Katsuki stood at his station in the back, farthest from the entrance, right behind fucking Izuku Midoriya of all fucking people - as if the little shit watching everything he had done to get through his A-levels wasn’t bad enough. They had gone to separate universities and the green twerp /still/ ended up in the same tent as Katsuki.

It didn’t matter. 

Bakugou was going to blow their minds. 

🍰

Kirishima was on walk-and-talk duty with Tsu, following the judges and one of the hosts around as they spoke to each baker about their cake. After this they would get a few shots of the judges watching, before they went back to the production trailer. The judges couldn’t get /too/ cozy with any of the contestants, after all. It was a baking competition, not a popularity contest. 

After Paul and Mary left, the crew would have a little bit more room to move, but not much. The first few weeks the tent was really crowded - and the floor was never 100% level. 

Really, Kirishima hated watching people cry when they got kicked off, but it was nice to have one less baking bench to maneuver around. 

Mel, Paul, and Mary followed a weird serpentine pattern around the tent, speaking to each baker and scaring the absolute pants off some when they popped in front of them. He learned about Yaomomo’s chocolate cherry cake, Satou’s quadruple chocolate cake (white, milk, dark, /and/ bittersweet chocolate), Inko’s chocolate and hazelnut cake, Shoji’s chocolate-and-strawberry-truffle cake, and Monoma’s white chocolate cake. 

That had given Paul and Mary pause when they learned there was only chopped white chocolate, no cocoa powder or nibs or anything in the whole thing, and more of the same for the frosting. Tsu and Kirishima had exchanged looks. It was rarely a good thing to have Paul and Mary questioning your choices this early in the competition. And Kirishima wasn’t a baker himself, but he had been in the tent for a while, and he knew white chocolate was finicky. But he wasn’t a judge, he was a cameraman, and it wasn’t his job to critique anyone’s recipes. You couldn't pay him enough to do that. They went on and on, until there were only two bakers left. 

Mel started them off. “Izuku! Now, as I understand it, you’ve got not one, but two people quite close to you in the tent, is that right?”

The blonde baker behind him snorted as Izuku /saluted/ the judges with his spatula and said yes, his mom and his childhood friend were both in the tent with him, yes, oh, his cake? His cake was chocolate and peanut butter, yes, both flavors in the sponge, and then a layer of chocolate mousse between, and then two sorts of frosting, yes, thank you, he’d do his best, his mom and his friend had taught him baking, you see, and he wanted to make them proud.

The blonde baker gave another loud snort. 

Kirishima and Tsu exchanged another look. He was awfully shakey for the first challenge in the first week. 

Finally it was the blonde bakers turn, Mary setting her hands on his bench and going a bit wide eyed at his ingredients. Mel started them off.

“Good morning, Katsuki!”

“Good morning, Mel, Mary, Paul.” 

Kirishima couldn’t help but think that Katsuki looked really cocky for the first challenge - almost the opposite of Izuku, even as he did a slow careful pan over his bench. There were all the ingredients he was used to seeing - Double 0 flour, sugar, baking powder, eggs, cocoa, a mighty pile of chopped dark chocolate, salt - but there was also a collection of spice jars, and chiles being roasted on the hob. 

“Now, Katsuki, and please forgive me if I seem rude at all, but you are aware that this is a /chocolate cake/ challenge, yes? Because it seems to me that you’ve got the beginnings of a burrito or something here, and I’m a bit confused.” 

Kirishima kept his camera on Katsuki, as Tsu kept hers on Mel and the judges. They had a contest every season to who got the best footage of Mary reacting, and any time anything spicy was involved, that was a good get. But it was his responsibility to make sure to get the baker’s reactions. 

Besides, the blonde baker’s grin was savage and wild - not the sort of thing you saw a lot of in the tent. 

Kirishima rather liked it. 

“It’s a smoked chile chocolate cake,” he said. “And it’s going to blow you out of the fucking water.”

There would also probably be a lot of bleeping out at this bench, but that wasn’t Kirishima’s problem.

Paul took up the questions. “So, these chiles, where are they going to be, in the sponge, in the frosting?”

“Through the whole thing,” Bakugou said. “Roasted and grated into the sponge mix, ground in the frosting with cream cheese to take out some of the bite, and the powdered ancho is going in with the cinnamon to decorate.” 

“It’s certainly a unique idea,” Mary said, in the tone that meant she didn’t think she would like it. “Rather a lot of strong flavors, don’t you think?” 

“It’ll be fantastic, I swear to fu- I swear, It’s amazing.” 

“Well, we’ll be looking forward to trying it. Thanks, mate.” Kirishima followed after the judges to get some shots with the smell of roasting chiles in his nose. 

🍰

Bakugou had his four cake tins lined, buttered, and floured, had checked his oven temperature, and was carefully weighing out his batter to make sure his layers were all even. He needed a cameraman, and he looked around for someone who was free. The redhead from earlier was panning his way around, getting shots of people’s stations. 

“Oi! Shitty hair!” 

He didn’t look up - fucking - “Hey! Red!” 

That got him. He swung around and passed Deku’s bench, where the nerd was muttering about mousse.

“These are going in the oven,” Bakugou said. “You need to get the shot, right?”

“Yeah, dude! Don’t just shove ‘em in, though, you’ve gotta say something about it.”

“Like fucking what, the tins are going in the oven, what the hell is there to say about it?”

“I dunno, man, you’re the expert! Something about the tins, or the color you’re looking for, or how much time you need, or about the temperature or something.” 

“Fine.” 

The cameraman squatted down so he was closer to level with the oven as Bakugou opened the door, and grabbed something out of the oven with his mitt. 

“There, what was that?”

“It’s my oven thermometer. I don’t trust ovens I haven’t baked in before, so I’m just double checking the temp’s right.” 

He held it up before the camera. “See? 178, just a little off, that’s why I gotta check.” 

He put the tins in with his mitt, two on the bottom and two on top. “I’ll rotate them half way through to make sure they bake evenly.”

“Why have you done four layers?”

“Quicker baking time, quicker cooling time, better to make layers with the frosting and make things nice and moist.” 

“Alright, thanks man! Just grab me or one of the others when your timer’s about to go, yeah? I’m Kirishima by the way!”

“Thanks,” Katsuki grunted, and reached for his tea towel to wipe his hands. 

🍰

Two and a half hours flew by in the tent as Kirishima and the others moved around the stations, watching Shoji scoop strawberry jam into his mixing bowl, Torino weighing out mascarpone, and Todoroki beating the absolute shit out of a bag of peppermints to crush them up. 

He was enjoying hanging out toward the back, where Midoriya-the-Younger was still frantically muttering to himself even as he piped his layers with peanut butter on his cheek and flour in his hair, and the ever scowling Bakugou carefully pouring colored and flavored isomalt into onto a silicone mat and shaping them into flames. He was intense, that one. 

But the part coming up was the part he hated filming: the judging. Hagakure and Ryuko’s cakes were overbaked; Monoma got told off for bad flavors and an underbaked cake. It wasn’t all bad; Uraraka’s space themed candy bar cake was moist and he couldn’t wait to taste it, and Midoriya-the-Elder’s hazelnut and chocolate cake was good enough that Paul ate a whole slice. 

Midoriya-the-Younger’s cake tasted good, but was a bit too heavy, and then it was Bakugou’s turn again. Mary Berry looked a bit nervous as Paul cut through the candy hell flames into the cake. 

Paul put his fork down after two bites.

“That’s amazing.”

Mary went in for a second bite. “I was afraid, you know - that the whole cake would be too hot, but it’s not, really. The spice and the smoke is there, but it’s not too much, and you’ve been quite clever using the cream cheese in the frosting to help balance that heat, it comes through beautifully.”

Mel and Sue were having a spoon battle to get more of the frosting as Paul finished. “Bake is excellent, cake is moist, flavor is amazing, decoration works well - think the cinnamon and the chile in your hellfire is a bit strong, but the whole thing - really, really good.” 

Paul extended his hand, and Kirishima moved to get Bakugou’s face. The first Hollywood handshake of the season!

The faint scowl that had covered Bakugou’s face for the entire challenge vanished as he shook Paul’s hand, and his grin was victorious and thrilling.

Kirishima /really/ wanted to try that cake. 

🍰

The clean up crew scrubbed down stations and put the leftovers in the crew’s lunchroom after the bakers all got to taste everyone else’s bakes, as the camera crew got reactions after the judging. 

Uraraka was bubbly, still not believing they liked it; Inko was blushing, still amazed that /Mary Berry had eaten her cake, and Bakugou’s smile cut right into him like a knife.

“I told you I was going to fucking blow them away,” he said. 

It was too bad the crew couldn’t play favorites, because Kirishima would happily spend the next ten weeks filming him to catch that smile.

But first, lunch time. 

🍰

As the thirteen bakers filed back into the tent and the crew took up their gear, the red-haired camera guy stopped Bakugou on his way to the bench. 

“Dude, that chile chocolate cake was the best thing I’ve eaten in my life!” 

“Course it was, I fucking made it,” Bakugou said, and he smiled a little despite himself when the crew guy laughed. Kirishima, that was his name. 

“Good luck on the technical!” he said, and headed off to get in position for Sue announcing the next technical challenge and the bakers looking nervously at their gingham covered mystery ingredients. 

“Our dear bakers, it’s time for your first technical challenge in the tent! Now, I know you’re all very excited to know what you’re baking, so I have a few hints for you. First off, it’s a Mary Berry recipe. Second off, it’s a cake. Third off, I haven’t a clue of how to pronounce it. Guesses?”

There were some snickers and a few bakers looking like they might faint before Mel jumped in, while Bakugou tried to think of Mary Berry cakes that hadn’t already been used in a challenge, wondering if he had read the recipe before. 

“Not to fear, not to fear! Because I know how to say it thanks to some cramming backstage! You all will be making a Bienenstich! You know, a bee-en-en-stitch!”

“Oh, yes, of course, the Bienenstich! The German bee-sting cake! Lovely little cake, all covered with almonds and sweet honey, and just full to bursting with a vanilla cream center, pre-sliced for your convenience. Now, Mary, again this is your recipe, do you have any words of advice for our bakers?”

Mary Berry gave them all a smile. “Be careful when you slice it!”

Mel and Sue (and most of the bakers) exchanged a look. 

“Well, with that very helpful advice, I am afraid Ms. Berry and Mr. Hollywood must be off, kicked from the tent, because this challenge is judged blind. Off you go!”

As the judges exited, Sue announced the time. “Bakers, you have got two and one quarter hours to perfect your lovely Bienenstich! Ready!”

“Set!”

“Bake!”

Bakugou whipped out the recipe and ran through the ingredients - all purpose flour, sugar, honey, almonds, butter, milk - heavy cake, that - salt, and, oh dear. Yeast.

A yeasted cake, really? On the first challenge? 

Well, fuck it, they were looking for the best bakers, not the wimpiest. Bakugou read through the recipe twice before starting his measuring. Sponge first with the yeast in to let it rise, topping while it rose, then the bake. 

Only question was, did the topping go on before the bake or after? Was it supposed to be like a streusel topping, added just at the end to crisp? 

Mary Berry had said to be careful when you sliced it. That could mean to make sure the cake was cool, or . . . the topping would be too hard to slice once it was cool, so you had to slice the cake when it was hot. 

He’d bake with the topping on. Otherwise there was no reason to make it this early, when he could be whipping cream.

Bakugou kneaded the dough a few times, just to make sure it was smooth, and chucked it in the proofing drawer. He licked his teeth a moment before setting his time, and then moved over to the cooktop to get the sugar and honey and butter melting, then stood, stirring over low, while he waited for his timer to go off. 

This was one of those timing challenges. If the cake wasn’t in and out soon enough, it’d never get cool enough to assemble, so everything hinged on the yeast activating and the cake going in on time.

At least Mary had given them a temperature this time. It couldn’t be a very long bake, there just wasn’t enough mix. Maybe half an hour? 

Tension was definitely higher in the tent this time around; the difference between a bake that you knew, that you had practiced, that you knew what it was supposed to look like and this was cutting. People were double and triple measuring, carefully underlining and making ticks on their recipe sheets, even hyperventilating when they accidentally added the almonds to the sponge mix (that was Monoma, who was too busy talking to Mel and Sue and Tsu about how his chocolate cake was really good, actually). 

Bakugou watched the other bakers and the crew out of the corner of his eye as he buttered and sugared his pan, and laid down parchment strips to help him lift it out. Deku was muttering - fucking nerd - about creme pat consistently, and Auntie Inko was rubbing Satou’s back when he realized he had to restart his sponge because forgot to add the egg. 

Fifty minutes had passed, and his cake was in the oven, and he pulled up the stand mixer to work on his creme pat. 

🍰

Mel and Sue were doing their you-can’t-film-this chant in front of Momo, who was having a break down over her creme pat, so Kirishima was checking in with the other bakers; Shoji was completely chill, calming fanning his cake with one hand and whipping up the pastry cream with the other; Yu was staring anxiously at her knife, trying to decide if the cake was cool enough to cut, and Bakugou was telling Midoriya-the-Younger to stop turning around and looking at his bench.

As much as the Bake-Off thrived on person-versus-goal conflict, a little pvp could be interesting, so he meandered over to film Bakugou smacking the top of his bench with a metal ruler.

He glared when Kirishima approached, smacked the bench one more time, and barked at the other contestant one more time to stop trying to cheat. Kirishima turned to Izuku, who had his head down as he lifted his cake from the tray.

“How’s it going, everything good?” 

“Oh, yeah, Kacchan is just, you know, really competitive, he always has been!”

“How’s your cake coming along?”

“Oh, uh, good, I think, I don’t do a lot of sweet baking with yeast, I wish I had had more time to let it rise, you know, with the egg and the milk and all, it weighs the cake down, but if Mary Berry says you can do it in two and a quarter hours, you do it, right?!”

Kirishima left Izuku muttering to himself about cooling times, and swiveled over to Bakugou, who was squatting so he could be eye level with his cake, a ruler in one hand and a paring knife in the other. Kirishima squatted next to him to get the shot.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m measuring the cake so I can make sure my cuts are even,” he said, scoring a careful line down the side before turning the cake to the next face. “Gotta have even layers if you want the cake to look right, and I’m not presenting shit on my first technical.” 

Kirishima filmed as he cut the cake horizontally along his marks with the serrated knife, and then scored the top, just slicing through the almonds. 

“Alright, now, why are you doing that?’

Bakugou sneered and pointed at the recipe. “The brief says nine even cake slices, and once that topping cools down, you’ll never slice it neatly. And this way I’ve got the marks all ready to go while my creme pat is chilling.” 

Kirishima nodded, and then swiveled to get Sue holding a funnel to her face as she announced that the bakers had “zwanzig Minuten für deinen Kuchen,” and argued with Mel whether “Minuten” and “Kuchen” were supposed to rhyme. 

🍰

“Bakers! Time is up! So if you’d all bring your lovely slices of Bienenstich up to the gingham altar, put those lovely bee-stung cakes behind your photo, and we’ll be prepared for the terrors that are Mary and Paul to do their judging!”

Bakugou eyed the cakes carefully. There was one that had no topping, and creme pat oozing out the sides, several that weren’t level or had runny filling, one that had disintegrated into crumbs. 

His looked pretty good - but he wanted to come in first place. Despite being one of the better cakes in the lineup, there was still a small clump of nerves in his stomach as Paul and Mary went down the line.

“This one’s not bad, creme pat’s a bit runny.”

“Not enough of a rise there, they didn’t let the yeast have it’s time to work.”

“But the creme pat is neat and well set.”

“Look at this one, Mary, it’s just a mess, no almonds on top, creme pat looks like it’s been left in the sun.”

“I’m afraid the texture’s all wrong, too. Whoever made this cake really did have a horrible time, I’m afraid.” 

“Oh, now this one is more like it, neat slices, good volume on the custard, even layers. Topping is delightful, they’ve baked that properly.”

“This next one is quite good, too, taste is right, looks good, plenty of crunchy almonds on top there.”

“Now the cake and the creme pat on this look right, but the topping hasn’t set properly at all.”

“No, you’re right. I don’t think they’ve baked it with the topping on, Mary, it’s just sort of splodged on there.” 

Thirty brutal minutes later, the judges were prepared to announce their rankings. Monoma’s cake placed thirteenth, followed by Yu and Yaomomo; Gran Torino came third, Bakugou second, and Auntie Inko first. 

If he had to come in second to anyone, at least it was someone who knew what they were doing. 

He’d come in first next time. 

🍰

For thirty minutes of the actual show, they were baking for about five hours, and filming for almost ten. Everyone was beat, bakers, crew, hosts, and judes, as they dragged themselves through Welford Park back to the hotel. Bakugou wanted a shower, now, and waved off the other bakers when they asked if he wanted to join them for dinner. He’d rather eat on his own later. 

By the time he had showered, soaked, dried, and dressed, he expected the hotel’s restaurant to be mostly empty. And it was, mostly. 

The other bakers were nowhere to be seen, but as he walked in, the cameraman who had filmed him putting his cakes in and scoring the sponge for the bee-sting technical. He looked up with a mouthful of chips and waves, smiling as soon as he swallowed his mouthful down.

“Hey! Bakugou, over here!” 

Any other day, any other place, Bakugou would have sucked his teeth and ignored him. But he was in a good mood, and for some reason, beyond his ken, Kirishima seemed actually happy to see him.

Or he was an incredible actor who was seriously wasting his talent on the wrong side of the camera. 

Bakugou slouched over to sit near him, one bar stool between them. 

“Hey.” 

“Hey! You must be excited, yeah? 

“Fucking why?”

“You know!” Kirishima looked around and lowered his voice enough so he wouldn’t be blabbing Bake Off secrets to the general public. “The Hollywood handshake! Second in technical! That’s pretty good, especially in the first week.” 

“I already fucking knew my cake was dam good, but yeah, I guess it was a good week. I don’t need to wait for Paul and Mary to tell me I can bake, I can fucking bake.”

“Wow, you’re pretty confident in yourself, huh? That’s so manly!” 

“What the fuck?”

“You know, it’s like, you’re living your life the way you want, no regrets, not waiting on other people’s judgement! Although . . .”

“Fucking what are you talking about, ‘although’? You got something to say?”

“Just - if you don’t need Paul and Mary to tell you you can bake, why did you want to be on the show?”

“I know I can bake, but the rest of the country doesn’t.”

“Still, you’re just going for it, yeah? That’s still pretty manly, I think, going through all this stress to show other people what you’re made of! I’ve been behind the cameras for a few seasons now, and no one’s had the kind of confidence you had!”

“That’s cause I’m the fucking best, Red.” 

“Ha! I believe it after today. Say, do you think I could get that chocolate chile cake recipe from you? My ma’d love it, she’s crazy for chiles.”

“Tch. I was going to save it for the cookbook . . . but as long as you don’t go sharing it around, I guess I can let you test it out.” 

“Yeah!”

The next few hours of eating chips at the hotel bar and talking over pints was . . . surprisingly comfortable. Kirishima was easy to talk to. And he acknowledges that Bakugou was good, but he didn’t fawn over him, or move away from him, or even try to ignore his cursing. He just sat, and talked, and joked, and smiled. Bakugou liked that smile, despite himself. 

Bakugou wanted one thing incredibly clear.

He had always intended to win this competition, stay in the tent, and rub it in Deku’s face when he was declared the winner. 

But he didn’t mind enjoying the perks of a warm smile and stupid hair along the way. 

🍰

Sunday morning came early, and Bakugou put on an identical t-shirt to the one he wore yesterday. Did he go and buy duplicate shirts for these weekends? Yes, he did, but it was better than wearing the same exact shirt two days in a row. He was too sweaty in general to even consider that. 

Kirishima was there with the rest of the crew and gave him a smile as he took his place at the bench. Deku hadn’t done badly on the first two challenges, but he still hoped this would be the last week he was stuck with his stupid freckled face in the tent. 

It was time for the showstopper challenge, and Mel started them off.

“Bakers, I’ve got to tell you, I’ve been really impressed with the cakes you’ve made this weekend. Now, that’s not that really high praise, I’d be wowed by a cake from an easy bake oven if it had enough frosting on it, but-”

“Ignore her, I think you’ve all been great. You’ve got one chance more to impress the judges and secure your spot in the tent next week. So Mary and Paul would just love it if you would make a celebration fruity cake - any fruit you like, of course, but we want fruit and decorations and fruit and pizazz and drizzle and fruit, and, am I missing anything?”

“Fruit, I think. We want flavor, we want texture, we want it all! Bakers, you’ve got three and a half hours on this challenge! Ready!”

“Set!”

“Bake!” 

Bakugou whipped out his recipe and got to work.

🍰

Kirishima volunteered for the walk and talk this time; Mel was positively giddy when she found out that Shoji was making lemon-and-blueberry cakes; the massive blueberry cake would be shaped like a lemon and frosted with lemon icing; and a dozen or lemon cake pops would be covered in indigo fondant and powdered sugar to become blueberries, with marshmallow leaves. 

She proposed marriage, but Shoji said his heart belonged to his baking.

Yu was making apple cake with a cider glaze; Inko a peach cake shaped like a peach; Ochako a hummingbird cake with cut fruit hummingbirds; Torino a pineapple cake with pina colada frosting; Ryuku a triple berry cake; and Monoma a banana cake. 

Paul frowned when he saw the banana essence on his bench, and Kirishima exchanged a look with Tetsu over their cameras. It had been a few years since someone had made that particular mistake. 

Paul loved bananas. He hated banana essence.

Monoma laughed off his concerns, and the crewmen winced. 

Todoroki’s cake was mango and passionfruit; Satou was making a rose and lychee cake; and Izuku a yuzu ginger cake.

Finally, Kirishima had gotten to the bench he was waiting for - only to see banana peels in a pile at the end.

Surely Bakugou wouldn’t make the same error as Monoma? 

Mary seemed to sense the oncoming storm that was Paul Hollywood and jumped in before he could release his displeasure on Bakugou - although Kirishima was sure that would be a shouting match the likes of which the tent had never seen.

“Katsuki, tell us about your fruit celebration cake. I see you have quite a lot of bananas, no essence though. Are you worried about the flavor coming through?”

“I’m making a bananas-foster-upside-down cake. The flavor will be there - I’ve got some overripe powdered banana, too, and there isn’t much sugar on the cake so the fruit comes through strong.” 

Paul rubbed his face. “In the past we’ve had some trouble with people being sure their flavor was coming through and it didn’t - although you did nail your flavors in the signature.”

“The flavor will be there, Paul. I’ve made this cake three dozen times getting the recipe right. You’ll taste the fucking banana.” 

Paul put up his hands, if not in surrender, at least willing to wait to make his call, and left Bakugou to work. 

🍰

The showstopper judging always took a long time; the bakers stayed outside while the stations were cleaned, the fruity cakes carefully placed down at the benches, and the bakers interviewed about how they thought things had gone before the judgement.

There were a lot of shaking hands and teary faces, but almost as many relieved grins - and one person who didn’t even seem shaken.

Well, two, but Todoroki didn’t emote a lot. Bakugou just looked confident.

“If I say they’re going to taste the banana, they’re going to taste banana. I don’t have anything to fucking worry about.” 

🍰

As Bakugou brought up his banana cake, Paul had his face in a very careful resting neutral. There were caramelized bananas on top, and chocolate-salty-caramel drizzle sauce poured over it all. Kirishima thought it looked fucking delicious, but the look didn’t matter if Paul and Mary didn’t taste banana. 

Bakugou seemed to know what they were thinking as he set the tray down. 

“Bananas-Foster-Upside-Down cake,” he said. “I promise it tastes like bloody fucking banana.” 

Kirshima caught Mel and Sue’s snickers as Sero focused on Paul cutting the cake, Mary remarking on the crumb structure, Mel and Sue stealing a bit of the chocolate caramel glaze before Paul put his fork down with deliberation.

“You’re right. I can taste the banana. And it tastes like banana, not artificial banana. Your flavors are spot on here.”

“The bake is excellent, too,” Mary said, jumping in. “Beautiful texture, color’s good, and that glaze! It’s a rich cake, I certainly couldn’t handle more than a small piece, but it is excellent, and since we’ve asked for a celebration cake I can certainly see there being enough of that to go round for the whole party.” 

Paul shook his head ruefully. 

“I doubted you, mate, but I shouldn’t have. I think that’s the best banana cake I’ve had in this tent.” 

It was unfortunate that right after Bakugou, Monoma brought his cake up. 

It didn’t go well for him. 

Satou was praised for marrying the lychee with the rose beautifully; Inko for her decorations and the moistness of her cake; Gran Torino’s pina colada glaze was a bit strong even for Mary; Izuku was told to be a little bit more careful with his flavors, as the yuzu was drowned out by the ginger. Mel out right stole Shoji’s cake as soon as Paul and Mary had their slices, cheeks full and round like a chipmunk as she devoured his blueberry-lemon cake pops. 

All that was left was the judging.

🍰

Kirishima had filmed the discussion after the judging, and he knew who was in trouble and who was in line to be star baker, but most of the people with eyes and noses and tongues in the tent were aware of that. 

Still, it was hard to watch this part as Mel and Sue stood beside the judges, thirteen pairs of eyes (plus a few behind the camera) fixed on them. Sue started them off. 

“Bakers, it’s been an absolute treat meeting you all and seeing what you can make. I’m lucky, because I have the fun job this week; I get to announce our first star baker. Now, this was a tough job; Mary and Paul had a slap fight over it backstage, there was blood, but they finally came to an agreement.

“Our first star baker has wowed us with his flavors, first by including chiles and not burning poor Mary’s tongue; and then by having a banana cake that actually tasted, and I quote ‘like bloody fucking banana,’ which is not a phrase I had ever expected to hear. Katsuki, congratulations, you’re our star baker!” 

Bakugou, sandwiched between Shoji and Auntie Inko, got a friendly nudge on one side and a sobbing hug on the other, and Kirishima felt his heart bubble a little when he saw his smile. 

Katsuki Bakugou was made to win. 

Mel came in after Katsuki’s round of congratulations died down.

“Now of course, I’ve got the awful job. We must say goodbye to one of you every week, and with thirteen of you, there will be two, somewhere along the line. This week, we only have to say good-bye to one of you, but it will be horrible to see you go.”

Kirishima squatted as he panned across faces, careful to zoom in on the ones at risk. The video editors liked to stretch this moment out.

“I’m sorry to say that this week, we will be losing . . . Neito.”

Monoma sat frozen for a minute, not believing what he heard, as Mel and Sue came forward to sandwich him in a hug, even as he stayed sitting on his stool. Kirishima backed out to get the whole crowd in the shot as they hugged and talked and Monoma slowly drifted off his stool onto the floor. 

🍰

Kirishima didn’t get a chance to see Bakugou after - Awase did his interview while Kirishima was getting the final thoughts from Paul and Mary before next week’s challenges started. He didn’t expect to see him at all before next week; the crew had clean-up to do while the bakers went home to get some sleep. 

To his surprise, when he reached the train platform with his duffle bag and backpack, there was a head of blonde dandelion fluff sitting on one of the benches and staring down at his phone.

“Hey! I figured your train would have come and gone ages ago,” Kirishima said, smiling wide as he dropped down beside Bakugou.

“Had to talk about my ingredients for next week, I’ve been tweaking my macarons recipe.” 

“Oh, congratulations on the star baker! Those cakes were amazing.” 

“Tch, of course they were.” 

They sat like that for a while, Kirishima offering thoughts on cakes and Bakugou explaining why he was wrong and why Bakugou was right, and enjoying each other’s presence, although Bakugou wasn’t ready to admit to it. 

Finally, Bakugou’s train pulled in, and he stood to grab his bags, Kirishima waving as he boarded. 

“Bye, dude! I’ll see you next week!”

“Yeah, you will.”

Biscuit week started in five days. Kirishima couldn’t wait.  
Neither could Bakugou.


End file.
